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Rumex acetosa POLYGONACEAE

French sorrel is-the best variety for the table. It is not so acid as the British native variety, and its sharp astringent taste will wake up a bland salad if a few small leaves are chopped and mixed through. Be a bit sparing with the vinegar or lemon juice in any dressing for such a salad, as sorrel has sufficient of its own oxalic acid.

It is a perennial pot-herb, similar to spinach (and it can be cooked like that vegetable), with bright, glossy-green spade-shaped leaves with a reddish touch to their stems. Growing in a small clump, it does not take up very much space and two or three plants should provide you with ample leaves for salads and soups. It is a relative of buckwheat, and of the dock family of “weeds”, and is often mistakenly classed in with the other sorrels, of which oxalis is the most notorious member. Some of these other varieties can infiltrate pasturelands and become a real nuisance to the farmer, and they need no introduction to the home gardener, either. French Sorrel has no such propensity, keeping itself to itself in any sunny well-fed corner of the herb or vegetable garden.

Sorrel is easy to raise from seed in the spring, or from root divisions taken in the autumn. The seed keeps its germinating power well, and the young plants should break through the soil in about 7 to 10 days. They are sturdy-stemmed and easy to handle, and can be set out in the garden quite soon after the first two leaves are shooting. Guard them well from snails and slugs right from the first day, and give plenty of water to keep the leaves large and juicy. Cut off any flower heads that form, unless you need some fresh seed. Juice from the leaves of sorrel can be used like rennet for setting junket. Add drops to a cup of warm milk until it sours and sets, or make a strong “brew”—a handful of the herb in half a cup of water, and use this liquid when cool to set the junket in the same way. Juice from the leaves can also be used as a bleach for stains on linen, particularly for iron, rust or mould stains.

Sorrel is a strong internal antiseptic, and a much-loved soup-base in France.

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